Once again, DIS presents us with a completely dysfunctional Federation and a Starfleet that seems more like a friendly neighborhood watch than an interplanetary, multi-species organization that stretches across thousands of planets with trillions of inhabitants. The scene when a Breen ship appears out of thin air and parks in front of the gates of the Federation headquarters somehow reminded me of the film "Red Dawn". Apparently the Federation has neither sensor grids that would detect such a spaceship days in advance, nor interceptors, orbital guns and mines. And there seems to be no need to place a few battle cruisers around the headquarters either - despite Burnham's vision of a possible future in which the Breen have destroyed the headquarters. The fact that the Breen can beam into the meeting room with their weapons and Starfleet security is once again overpowered by a single woman who can also hack into the station's systems is almost a footnote in comparison. With all the incompetence, it's a miracle that the Federation hasn't been overrun by Romulans, Cardassians, Breen, Klingons, Borg, the Dominion, or other factions from the Gamma and Delta quadrants in the last 800 years.
And the future doesn't seem to be looking bleak just because of this apparent breakdown of galactic order. Apparently there are no historians, scribes, or other intellectuals left in the 32nd century. There is NO ONE in all of Federation space who knows anything about "manuscripts" - except engineer Reno (what a coincidence). You'd think there would be thousands of scholars on Betazed who would know something about a Betazoid manuscript. There should be scholars a dime a dozen on Vulcan, too. But the best option is JETT RENO?!? So this is what our future looks like after everyone has been dumbed down by TikTok, Instagram and the internet in general: In the 32nd century, there will be no one left in the entire galaxy who knows anything about books and history. And even artificial intelligence will become useless.
By the way: Since when do memories attach to objects that an empath then can read? And what is the point of an archive space station changing its location every 50 years to protect its treasures when, on the one hand, someone already knew 800 years ago where it would be today and, on the other hand, Tilly was able to calculate and extrapolate the archive's path through the previous locations anyway? And I don't even want to start ranting about Tilly and Adira, who are once again verbally patting each other on the back and complimenting each other on how well the other is doing their job. If all of these "Good job" and "Well done" scenes were cut out of the episodes, the story would have been told by now.
Rayner is silenced once again in this episode because he does not agree with the optimistic evaluation of the situation like the others. In previous Star Trek series, it was good practice to sit down with the senior officers when making important decisions, put all the facts and opinions on the table and discuss them openly. Picard, Janeway and even Kirk encouraged their officers to speak openly and also to express concerns. The goal was always to evaluate different points of view before a decision was made. But not in the Michael Burnham Show. Opinions that do not coincide with Michael Burnham's are not welcome and first officers who violate this rule are reprimanded and thrown out of the room. After all, there's no "we" in Michael, just an "I".
I am still speechless at how extremely friendly Moll and L'ak are treated and how much Book in particular cares for Moll. Not only did the two of them kill a few Breen, in one of the last episodes they also poisoned a guy and watched him die. I don't even want to know how many more lives they wiped out while carrying out their shady courier services. They are serious criminals and murderers, but are portrayed in a romanticized way like two desperate lovers! Furthermore, there was no reason not to hand Moll and L'ak over to the Breen. It would have given the Federation a breather and a head start in the search for the next clue. After all, the Breen were primarily occupied with internal struggles for power in their Empire. In the end, this whole delaying tactic didn't work anyway.
And why is EVERYTHING on the Discovery always so dark? Sickbay should be lit like daylight so that treatments and operations can be carried out there. But Sickbay seems more like a nightclub than a medical facility. There are no nurses anywhere there either.